Derby Crown Court was told how inside were 19-year-old Thai Vo, who later admitted he had been tending to plants for around a year and Thai Nguyen, 21, who had arrived to help him just 24 hours before the raid.

The near 200 cannabis plants were seized, weighed, analysed and experts concluded that, if sold in small quantities on the streets of Derbyshire, they could have made between £50,000 and £80,000.

Thai Vo had been growing cannabis at the property for around a year (Image: Derbyshire Constabulary)

Jonathan Hullis, for Vo, said: “He was 16 when he left his family home in Vietnam and came into the country in the back of a lorry.

“From then on he was in a vulnerable position as an illegal immigrant.

“He was a young man without any family or links and was therefore in a vulnerable position to be exploited by those further up the chain.

“He knows custody is coming and that on his release he is likely to end up in a detention centre and then deported home.”

Thai Nguyen had only been at the house for 24 hours (Image: Derbyshire Constabulary)

Roger Wilson, for Nguyen, said his client had arrived in the UK on a student visa which had recently run out and he did not have the money to fly home to his family, also in Vietnam.

He said: “He is in a different position as he was only at the property for a matter of hours before the police arrived.

“He even gave them a description of the man who dropped him off at the property."

Steven Taylor, prosecuting, said police raided the address in Springfield Garden on March 10.